Baron Briefs

Q: The prices of U.S. homes fell by 3.2 percent in the second quarter, the steepest in 20 years. What do you think?

“The average agent processes eight deals a year. We have an agent that can do that every week,” Kelman explains.

“Are you spinning me?” Stahl asks.

“I mean, seriously,” Kelman replies.

I reviewed the segment again this morning. I believe the key word Glenn used was “can”…. as in Redfin has an agent who can close eight deals per week if market conditions allow. If Redfin did have an agent who was closing eight deals per week, it seems Glenn would have said, “We have an agent who is doing that every week”. However, the impression of eight deals per week is certainly made. But it’s like a coach saying “we have a running back who can rush for 100 yards per game each week”. They’re both statements that speak of potential. In my opinion, Glenn was speaking to Redfin’s technological and organizational advantage over the average “traditional” agent rather than current performance.

Furthermore, “I mean, seriously” doesn’t seem like a confident response to the question, “Are you spinning me?”. I would expect “No”, “Absolutely Not”, or “Not spinning at all”.

In any event, I invite Redfin’s super-agent to publish his or her MyAgentRankâ„¢ badge on a website or weblog and allow their sales data to be vetted by the public.

Note to bootstrappers: don’t sit on a new feature announcement too long or someone with much better funding will grab headlines with a similar feature.

So, rather than appearing as a quick and nimble entrepreneur, I get to appear as an “us too” and prematurely announce our new answer service, RealAnswers(TM), with a side-by-side comparison to Zillow’s new Home Q&A. That’s right. RealtyBaron quietly launched an answer service alongside our home search, RealSearch(TM), way back on January 5th. The purpose is to—you guessed it—answer questions about homes.

Here’s how it compares to Zillow’s new Home Q&A:

…pretty good if you ask me. This morning, I searched for homes with asking prices between $250,000 and $500,000 in 13 metro areas and compared the size of RealtyBaron’s RealSearchâ„¢ results with two real estate search leaders, Trulia and Propsmart. The results surprised me:

Atlanta	1,462	1,496	2,693
Boston	242	498	1,240
Chicago	2,420	10,023	9,199
Dallas	744	332	1,950
Denver	411	1,358	1,186
Vegas	5,050	3,264	3,336
L.A.	369	2,686	4,023
Miami	1,950	8,770	10,375
Phoenix	2,128	6,802	4,063
Seattle	298	3,470	751
S.D.	1,038	3,238	5,519
S.F.	75	468	1,186
D.C.	603	720	2,374
**NOTE: 15% added to Trulia numbers to account for no FSBOs in results.

Was this a scientific comparison? No, because it doesn’t consider the quality of the listing data. For example, Trulia’s or Propsmart’s search algorithms may exclude listings from their index if the listing is missing data points A, B, and/or C. As a result, the total number of their results would be lower. Regardless, it was nice to visualize how RealtyBaron’s RealSearchâ„¢ sizes up against the incumbents.

…2.7 million at last count. But if the number changes, you’ll know immediately now that our search form shows the total size of Vast’s dataset.

Two reports this week indicated the U.S. housing market continues to slow. On Wednesday, the National Association of REALTORS® released existing home sales data showing July sales slipped 11.2% from a year ago. On Thursday, the Census Bureau reported new home sales were down down 21.6% from a year ago.

Fear not, says Bill Tancer, General Manager of Global Research at Hitwise. He’s plotted NAR’s existing home sales against the search term “homes for sale” and predicts an uptick come September:

…barring any unusual circumstances over the next week, our search term data indicates a reversal in the downward trend reported by NAR yesterday. The August numbers, scheduled to be released September 25th, should reflect that reversal.

Since launching RealtyBaron.com, our auction platform has only been introducing homeowners to Realtors®. Today, we start helping the other side of the real estate transaction with Buyer Rebate Auctions.

Basically, anyone who has taken the home search into their own hands using vertical search tools such as Realtor.com, Trulia, or Propsmart can use this new feature to connect with a Realtor® who will represent them in the transaction. Realtor® bids are based on what sales commission (or flat fee) they’d accept as compensation. The rebate is the difference between the co-broke fee listed in the MLS and the Realtor’s final bid. For example, a co-broke fee of 3% minus a final bid of 1% = 2% rebate for buyer.

Like RealtyBaron’s current Listing Auctions, bidding on Buyer Rebate Auctions will be controlled by the gatekeeper algorithm, AgentRankâ„¢. As the name implies, AgentRank(TM) ranks agents and prevents underperforming agents from bidding. By specifying a minimum AgentRankâ„¢, buyers can ensure they meet a Realtor who has a proven track record.

For Realtors®, this feature is an easy way to connect with clients who have already absorbed the most costly part of representing buyers–the prolonged home search.

UPDATE: Inman News writes about our new Buyer Rebate Auctions. Thanks, Glenn!